


You Are Not The One

by NaoTheSillyDuffer



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:00:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26007637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaoTheSillyDuffer/pseuds/NaoTheSillyDuffer





	1. Forward

This is a Persona 5 Fanfiction/retelling, focused on a roleplay character I have who is the twin brother of Akira Kurusu, who is Joker from the Phantom Thieves. 

This story will focus on a storyline where Joker doesn't ever become a Phantom Thief or even travel to Tokyo and his twin brother has to become the leader of the Phantom Thieves, while not being the chosen one. 

This piece is actually my first fanfiction, after many years roleplaying in the Persona verse, so I hope it goes well.  
I also have never used this site before so little scary, so please keep that in mind if I have formatting problems or something, it might take some time for me to figure out everything!

It is a work in progress that will have chapters being edited as I see changes that are required (I'm looking at you Chapter 1!!) and will be updated as I write more.


	2. Chapter 2

At the front of Yasogami High School two teenagers were gossiping, other students were walking past on their way home from a long day of school. “Hey I heard those Kurusu twins get abused by their father.” Said a young teenage boy to a teenage girl who was roughly their age. “No wonder the act so strange...” The girl replies, shaking her head in disapproval. “They supposedly have a little sister too, I bet she gets the same-ughh!!” 

Their conversation was cut short as the teenage boy got punched right in the face by the elder Kurusu brother Ren, just as the teenager who was punched tried to get back up to his feet Ren hit him again, this time getting onto his chest and repeatedly punched him in the face. The girl teenager screamed and tried to get Ren off her friend but he just glared at her, blood speckled across his face. She quickly backed off from him and called the police. 

After hearing the screams the teachers ran over to Ren, he was swiftly pulled off from the other teenager and pinned him down to the ground, Ren struggled for a moment until he heard the sirens, where he suddenly went still as the gravity of what he had done was slowly beginning to dawn on him. He could see another teacher sitting the teenage boy up, he had an obvious black eye and broken nose. Even Ren’s own hands were covered in blood and it obviously wasn’t his own. 

Once the police arrived, they helped stand up Ren and put him in handcuffs and swiftly into the back of a police car. He put up no resistance what so ever, he just sat in silence thinking about what will happen to him and his family now that he was in such deep trouble. Will his father punish him for lashing out? Will he be taken away to prison? He just let out a large sigh, worried for his siblings’ safety now that he was gone. For all he knew his father will take out his anger towards Ren onto his siblings if he was taken to prison. 

At the police station Ren got the blood cleaned up off of him and then got processed, after what felt like hours of conversations, from countless people Ren was going to be put into a young person probation program. 

“Alright kid.” The police chief says eyeing Ren warily. “You are going to Tokyo, an old woman who goes by Madame Closi. She takes in problem kids like you and reforms them, but...you mess up once and you are straight to juvie. Understand?” The police chief returns to looking at some paper work, glancing up at the teenager before him now and then. 

Ren wasn’t showing any signs of resistance, he just looked at the chief. “Yeah alright.” He replied in a cold emotionless tone of voice. He wanted to protest about this situation, but he knew it wasn’t worth it, his father had connections to the police and knew any complaints will get him utterly nothing in return, in fact fighting this could just send him to juvie and that was what he wanted the least, he would have no chance of being with his siblings again. 

With a police officer escort, he was dropped off at a small two-story house with a bunch of flower pots scattered throughout the tiny front yard and around the mail box, it made Ren feel strangely relaxed, his home was devoid of colour and was as sterile as a hospital so it felt nice to see anything other than a shade of white. 

After taking a deep breath Ren knocked on the front door, awaiting someone to answer it, he turned his head to look behind him and the police officer remained there making sure he wasn’t going to run away. Seeing this caused Ren to sigh a bit, he returned his attention to the door as he heard it opening. 

Inside was a woman roughly in her sixties wearing a rather elaborately decorated purple and gold kimono, it was covered in a flower pattern with a large butterfly on the back. 

“You must be little Ren, come on inside, I’ll show you to your room darling.” She seemed overly kind, what one would assume to be the stereotypical grandmother type. 

It put Ren off, but he didn’t mention it, he simply nodded his head and turned around once again, seeing the police officer getting into their car. He then focused his attention on the woman who was leading him to the upper floor of the building. 

Inside the room was a simple futon bed and a desk, there was a built-in wardrobe which Ren inspected, it had some uniforms for Shujin Academy and alongside the uniforms were what one could say is an old person trying to find something ‘hip’ for the kids for Ren to wear, he lightly grimaced at the idea of wearing such clothing. 

Closi smiled at Ren as she stood in the open door frame. “I will let you settle in; I’ll be downstairs if you need me. Just remember that you will be seeing the principal of your new school tomorrow so be sure you get plenty of sleep.” She then gently closed the door allowing Ren to be alone. 

Ren sighed, laying out on his new bed, tomorrow was going to be the true start of his new life here. “Two whole years huh...?” He mumbles to himself as he begins to drift off into a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Ren found himself in a dream, he was in total darkness, with a faint young female voice calling out. “You are not the one.” As he heard those words a faint blue light appeared in the distance and Ren tried making his way towards it, with each step his feet became harder to move, like a great weight was placed upon them. Just as he was about to reach the light the weight became too heavy and he soon collapsed, a clanking of chains along the thud of his own body hitting what felt like a cold stone floor, echoed throughout this black empty world. 

After falling his eyes sprung open and he sat up in his bed, a cold sweat covering his face, he casually pulled out his phone to check the time. “Oh shit! I’m not missing this.” He quickly made his way to a small TV that Closi had put into his room and turned it on, he flicked through the channels until he found what he wanted, the morning exercises program. 

He quickly got to work following the routine and by the end of it marking off a small calendar, the calendar was completely filled with marks, Ren didn’t miss a single day of these exercises, no matter how sick he was. 

A wonderful exercise session later and Ren is doing a cool down stretch, though he got interrupted by Closi calling out from behind the door. “Ren darling, breakfast is ready, you need a big meal before you go meet your principal.” 

Down the stairs to the small kitchen where Closi served Ren up a big breakfast for a growing boy, he happily ate it and was just about to leave the house to go to school but is stopped by Closi speaking to him. “I’m sorry Ren, you need to be supervised on your way to school, at least for a while. It is one of the rules of your probation, you need supervision when out in public.” 

Ren frowned, but he didn’t complain, he waited for Closi who slowly guided him to Shujin Academy, and into the principal's office. 

Inside the office a rather large fat man with a bald head sat at his desk, looking rather annoyed that he had to come here on a Sunday for a criminal. “Ren Kurusu?” He asks as he looks over some paperwork which contained information about Ren’s crime. “I’m your Principal, Kobayakawa.” He looks at the teenager who seemed less than impressed at this man’s sate of health. “You are going to be in class 2-E, if you even so much as get a detention you are out of here. Understand?” 

Ren nodded casually. “Can you even handle being a principal? Your office is on the top floor...that’s a lot of stairs.” 

Kobayakawa’s face turned red, giving him the look of a tomato. “Wh-why I should just expel you right there! But...I’ll be willing to overlook this as your guardian is still here and can hopefully lay out a proper punishment before school tomorrow. Now get out of my sight!” 

Ren just leaves the office and ignores all of Closi’s attempts on talking about why he said such a rude thing. 

When they get home, Ren goes straight into his room so he can sit back and relax, he turns on the TV and just as he was about to settle down and watch some boxing Closi comes into his room. 

“Now Ren, we need to talk about what happened today with the principal.” She speaks in a gentle caring tone; one Ren was not used to. “If you want to get out of jail you need to respect your elders, I’ve never had a child like you go to prison and you will not be my first.” She gives Ren a soft smile hoping it will help him understand his grave his situation is, if he keeps lashing out like this. 

Ren nods his head. “Long as they don’t provoke me, I won’t respond.” 

It wasn’t the response Closi wanted to hear, but she accepted it, this was better than nothing. “Long as you behave.” She turns so she can leave. “I’ll be making a nice meal for you; I will call you when it is ready.” She closes the door behind herself and goes to the kitchen to cook, leaving Ren by himself in his room. 

There wasn’t much to do in the room aside from watch TV, so while it was on Ren got down onto the floor and started to do some push ups, he enjoyed exercise, it was a way to get out his excess energy as well as keep his body nice, strong and fit. 

He continued through a basic workout routine that didn’t require any equipment, until he heard Closi calling him down for a meal. 

Looking towards the door contemplating if he should go down and get the food from her, it was so strange to be called for food... It was common to have a single meal a day at his home, unless he basically stole food from his father. He knew Closi was just trying to be nice to him, but it still felt wrong, so he just climbed up onto his bed, ignoring her calls for him. 

Time passed and the sun was starting to set, Closi checked on Ren, seeing him lying on the bed with his back facing her she assumed he wanted to sleep and gave a gentle smile. “Sleep well Ren.” 

Hearing that Ren let’s out a light grunt to show that he heard her. Once she left Ren slowly got up to his feet and begun to make his way to the kitchen, he saw Closi was watching some television program about gardening and before she could notice him, he grabbed the food she made for him and quickly bolted back up to his bedroom. 

With food in hand Ren begun to eat eagerly, even though it was a simple curry and rice dish, it was delicious! Ren chuckled to himself. “Must be all that love I hear about.” He is quick to finish the curry and he puts the small bowl onto his desk, he would put it back into the kitchen later. 

Now that the food was done, Ren did some basic exercises and went to bed early, there wasn’t anything else to do. Because of this he watched the TV until his body just go so exhausted that he fell asleep. 

No strange dreams came to Ren tonight and he awoke bright and early for his exercises. Once he had finished the routine, he got dressed in his school uniform and stroked back his hair, keeping a mental note that he needed some hair gel and perhaps something to spruce up his uniform and daily wear, maybe Closi can give him some pocket money? He would have to ask her after school today. 

Ren quickly made his way down the stairs and noticed Closi wasn’t in, he shrugged his shoulders not really caring that she wasn’t here. As soon as he opened the door he figured out where Closi was, she was gardening. 

“Oh, Ren darling, I hope you slept well, do you need me to make you some breakfast?” She asked getting to her feet slowly, dusting off her kimono and looking at Ren. “You look rather spiffing in that uniform Ren.” She smiled at him adjusting the collar of his shirt so that it was practically perfect. 

Ren pulled back slightly from her, but he did let out just a tiny smile, it felt good to be cared for, even if he didn’t want to admit it to her face. “I need to get going, can’t miss the first bell...” Before Closi could get a word in Ren was off down the street, but much to his dismay Closi managed to catch up to him. “You are pretty fast for an old girl.” He laughs lightly and turns his attention to the older woman. “What is the matter?” 

Closi looked at Ren and handed him a brand-new smart phone. “I almost forgot this is for you. Make sure you always take it with you so I can keep in contact with you.” 

This phone looked really expensive, Ren checked it over, it was green...his favourite colour how did she know that? He shook his head deciding to ignore questioning it for now as it was a free phone and had never had one before. 

“You better get moving Ren; you can’t be late for school on your first day.” Closi said softly, lightly patting him on the back. She then quickly guides him to the front of the school, knowing it would be embarrassing for a teenager to be with such an old person Closi was quick to leave once she saw Ren making his way up the stairs and into the school. 

Ren went to the teacher’s lounge, he leaned on the wall for a while thinking of how his teacher is going to react to having a criminal in their classroom. He checked his phone for the time, few more minutes and his meeting with his teacher will take place. As he waited a male teacher approached him looking rather angry, he has been here all for five minutes and he already has a teacher out for his blood. The teacher had a stopwatch, Ren assumed because of this, that this man was the Physical Education teacher. 

“You! You are the criminal who has disgraced this school with your presence. You are lucky the principal has such a kind heart and likes to take in problem kids, good for publicity just like me being an Olympian.” As the teacher spoke Ren just looked bored, this man was full of hot air and Ren knew it. 

“Well I need to go talk with my teacher and get to class, go try and intimidate someone else, as it won’t work on me.” Before the teacher could respond he entered the teacher’s lounge. The teacher looked like he was about to follow but he stopped himself and walked off to do something else in the class. 

A woman with black hair and purple clothing approached Ren. “You must be Ren Kurusu, I’m Ms. Chouno, I’ll be your home room teacher, I also teach English. Now I know you are on probation, so I will keep an eye on you. You won’t be the first problem kid that has been forced into my class.” She sighed, obviously not happy with the school’s decision to give her Ren, after getting over that annoyance she guides him to the classroom, so he could meet the class. 

Inside the classroom Ms. Chouno begins to introduce Ren to the class. “Class this is Ren Kurusu, he will be here for two whole years, now while you might have heard that he is here on probation, that is true but-” Before she could finish talking Ren interrupted. “I’m not here to fight people, I just want to go to school and graduate like normal, but...don’t mess with me, I don’t take kindly to idiots.” And with that he goes down to the only empty seat in the class, it was near the front, most Ren expected this was so his teachers could keep an eye on him easily. 

No one in the class really stood out to Ren aside from a male teenager who was sitting in the back of the class with spiked up bleached blonde hair, perhaps this was another problem kid Ms. Chouno was on about? He decided not think about it as his home room teacher begun to talk. “Now, even though we have a new student we will be continuing on with our education like normal.” 

Class followed by normally, until Ren was ready to get home from school, he stayed back for a while longer than the rest of the class mainly so the teacher could give him some catch up homework as he came in during the middle of a topic. 

Finally, he was free to leave the school, as he was going down the stairs to the first floor going towards the sporting side so he could figure out when the new try outs could be. As he looked around for some posters about the clubs, he could only find volleyball and the only other sporting club he could find was under a volleyball poster, it was for the track team. “Where is the boxing or hell...any other sport?” 

After looking at the posters Ren begun to turn and make his way home. As he begun to walk out towards the front gate of the school, something caught his eye, that teacher with the stopwatch and a schoolgirl, she must have been around his age, she had long blonde hair done up in pony tails on the sides of her head. The teacher was leaning over her with his arm resting on the wall above her, basically pinning her to the wall without touching her, she had her back on the wall looking rather uncomfortable with how she was being treated. 

Seeing this Ren simply pushed the teacher away from the girl, glaring at him. “I hate people like you...” He said firmly. “Don’t touch her again.” Ren continued in that firm tone of voice. 

The teacher didn’t take that quietly. “What are you doing so late after school?! How dare you speak to me that way! You know who I am?!” 

“Yeah...some kind of kiddy fiddler.” Ren replied not being intimidated by this adult’s constant yelling at him. 

The teacher obviously got mad by this and focused his attention to Ren, totally ignoring the female teenager who took the distraction as a good way to escape. 

“There is a teacher’s meeting in one week, I’m going to bring this disobedience to the principal and get you expelled. I would do it right now but there is a big game soon and I need to train everyone for it, don’t get comfortable here, you will be leaving very soon.” With a pause he looked at Ren he actually smiled in a rather sadistic way. “I’m impressed, you didn’t even last one day before you got on my shit list.” The teacher then left with a smug smile on his face. 

After all that Ren didn’t really know how to react, he was in deep shit now...but he did the right thing and kept him from touching that girl. He sighed and begun to walk home from school, at the front gate the girl he saw being harassed was there waiting for him. 

“Thank you, you are the transfer student, right? No one else would stand up to Kamoshida if they had been here longer than a day.” She lets out a soft laugh, but it was obvious she was still somewhat distressed. 

Ren nodded his head, extending a hand for a shake. “That’s me, I’m Ren Kurusu.” 

“Ann Takamaki.” She said as she took his hand and gently shook it as a nice greeting. “I hope you didn’t get too badly in trouble for me...I didn’t really need it; I know how to handle that creep.” 

With a shrug Ren simply said. “Oh, you know...the usual, I’m going to be expelled in a week.” 

Ann looked somewhat upset about that, he just wanted to do the right thing and now he was in trouble for it. “He truly is like a king of a castle, no one stands up to him...” She shakes her head. “Look, I’m thankful for you getting him off me, but don’t do it again, I don’t want you to be expelled. Maybe you can convince him so he doesn’t expel you...” 

Hearing this Ren simply shook his head. “No, I’m not sucking some fuck-wits dick to avoid expulsion.” 

Seeing Ann cringe from that statement he knew he had hit a nerve with that statement. “First of all gross, second of all, I didn’t mean that! I mean just be polite, maybe he will drop it?” 

“Not happening...I ain’t sucking up to him. Even if it means being expelled.” 

With the fact that she wasn’t going through to him she sighed and nodded her head. “Well I’ll catch you later maybe. I need to get going.” Ann then left Ren alone. He sighed and made his way back home. 

Once he got home, he went past Closi who was back watching some more gardening television only saying a simple “I’m home.” As he quickly off into his room, not even caring if she heard him or not. 

Inside his room he begins to check out his phone as he puts on some sports as background noise, this phone looked like a top brand, it must have cost a fortune. With some fiddling he had installed some apps he will use as well as changing his background image to a famous boxer he liked. He was happily exploring his phone until he had discovered a strange app the icon was red with a black eye on it. “Must be some spyware from all the shit I downloaded...Well, delete.” He deletes the app and puts his phone away. Focusing his attention to the sport program he didn’t remember when he fell asleep but he must have fallen asleep as he found himself awake with the sun rising just enough to peek through the curtains and shine into his sleepy eyes.

As his body begun to wake up, he grabbed his phone and checked the time, he got out of bed and finished his morning exercises and with some more time on his phone he noticed the strange app had shown up again, he sighed and this time tapped it, for all he knew it was an app Closi had put on his phone to track his movements. 

Inside the app was a strange red layout and a map, along with the text that read “Awaiting Input”. Ren stared at this strange screen for a while before he shook his head and put his phone aside, he had some time before school to kill so he lay on his bed and thought about what happened yesterday, he didn’t really have much time to think about his upcoming expulsion. If Closi found out about this...he sighed it was no use worrying about it given there was no way he could change the mind of someone like Kamoshida. 

The words of Ann came back to him. "Kamoshida, that fuckin' King of the castle...All of Shujin seems to be bouncing on his dick." He was surprised to hear an electronic voice say. "Match found." Ren looked around for it's source and found his phone with that strange app open, inside the text box had Kamoshida's name and castle on it, along with his school. "What kind of strange app is this thing?" There was a big button saying "Navigate" on it and Ren just pressed it, what was the worst that could happen?


	4. Chapter 4

A strong headache came over him, he almost dropped his phone onto his face as he quickly placed a hand to his forehead with a hiss of pain. Once the discomfort had passed he had noticed the time and quickly made his way to school. Following the same path to school he took the other two times and something was off, instead of his school was a large European castle. "Th-the fuck is this?!" He checked the sign in front of the school and it read Shujin Academy. "Why does the school look like Dragon Quest? There is no way it could be renovated that fast." Deciding he didn't want to be late for school he decided to enter this strange castle, right through the front door, inside was a grand hall with a large red carpeted staircase leading up to a giant framed picture of Kamoshida, though he looked not like a teacher and more along the lines of a knight or maybe a king?

"What the hell is going on here?" He says grabbing the attention of two gold armored knights with large shields and swords. The knights approached Ren who hadn't moved past the doorway.

"Halt! What are you doing trespassing on King Kamoshida's castle?" One of the knights said in an odd tone of voice, Ren couldn't put his finger on it, but something about their voice seemed unsettling.

"I don't know what you are on about, this is my school, least it was a school yesterday." Ren said obviously annoyed by these two idiots. "Alright who are you jokers? Jun? Sudou?" He was just saying whatever names came into his head, the only student's name he knew was Ann's and these knights were definitely not her.

The knights didn't reply they simply grabbed Ren by the arms and started to escort him away, with a bit of a struggle Ren managed to get one of his arms free and punched one of the knights in the face, instead of hitting what he expected to be gold painted cardboard or plastic was solid metal. "Fuck!" He yelled out in pain and with Ren distracted with his hand the knights easily recaptured him and took him down into the dungeons.

Along the way he saw multiple cells filled with teenage boys all looking rather miserable, injured or just physically exhausted, many were crying out for water. A few flights of stairs and a long hallway later Ren was tossed into a cell with seemingly no way out.

Once free from his captors he checked over his hand, thankfully it wasn't broken, but it hurt like crazy. After figuring out his hand would be okay Ren went to the bars of his cell and shook them all, maybe there was a false bar or something, every cell has a false bar, he learned that from TV and when did TV ever lie?

Alas nothing happened and all the bars were sturdy. "Alright nice joke, now let me out of here!" He shouted out as he shook the bars on the door to make as loud of a noise as possible. “No response...” Ren said to himself followed by a heavy sigh as he moved over to the back of a cell, there was a basic metal slab held up by trains with an itchy potato sack like fabric for a bed and an old musky smelling barrel which he assumed was for a table or maybe a seat.

Ren takes a seat on the bed which made a rather unpleasant squeak as the metal adjusted to his weight as well as scrape across the cold stone brick walls. He simply lay on the bed and waited for his captors to let him out, this was just a big misunderstanding or joke.

What felt like hours passed and finally he heard some movement coming toward his cell, Ren sat up from the bed, groaning in discomfort as his back ached from laying on that metal slab that long period of time.

Outside of the cell stood two of those golden knights they looked exactly the same as all the other knights Ren had encountered. Behind those knights was...

“Kamoshida?!” Ren shouted out in utter shock. Why was a teacher in this strange castle and why was he wearing some weird robe?

Kamoshida moved in front of the knights leering into the cell with pure disgust at seeing Ren inside. He wore a red heart covered robe with fluffy white trimmings, the robe covered almost all of his body, from his neck all the way down to his ankles. 

“Nice robe.” Ren said in a highly sarcastic tone.

“Don’t speak to me in such a tone of voice!” He says pointing at Ren, revealing that he was only wearing rather tight forming pink underwear under this robe.

“Aww dude!” Ren quickly covered his eyes that was just too much of a man he wanted to see. “Please put on some pants! That’s fucking disgusting!”

Kamoshida wasn’t pleased by this reaction and the knights opened up the cell, Ren did attempt to escape, he tried to run for the door and was quickly stopped by the two knights, they grabbed him by his arms and held, all of Ren’s struggles were in vain and he couldn’t escape. Sure his legs were free but the way he was being held made it rather hard to kick back even if he wanted to, though his legs were weaker than his arms when it came to fighting so they wouldn’t be as effective anyway.

The barely covered teacher approached Ren still with that smug look on his face, he grabbed Ren’s chin to look into his eyes, Kamoshida spat on Ren’s face, Ren being held in such a way tried pulling away but it still landed on his cheek, he had to close one of his eyes to avoid the spit hitting his eye. 

Just as Ren was about to make a witty retort, he got punched in the gut by Kamoshida, he groaned in discomfort and once again tried to struggle free, being obviously more and more desperate in his attempts to escape. A piece inside of Ren just snapped as the pain of punches upon punches all over his body, as he spat out blood a strange pain hit his very soul.

Kamoshida and the knights backed off as a blue aura started to form around Ren, he dropped down to his knees clutching his face, he felt like there was something all over his face that he couldn’t get off.

“Are you really going to lay there and take it?” A strange voice echoes within the fibre of his very soul. “When someone stands above you, you fight until they are knocked down!” The voice continues to speak to Ren, who continued to claw at his face madly. “Let’s combine our powers together and destroy those who wish to rule over us!”

After the strange voice stopped speaking Ren’s eyes glowed yellow and a wide grin came across his face as a power overflowed through him. With a laugh he placed a hand on a black mask that now covered his face, it had two angular points going down to the top of his jawbones, white highlights around the eyes to make his eyes pop and above the nose was a set of three small spikes.

He then tore the mask off his face, splattering blood across the cold stone floor of his cell, but Ren didn’t have time to think about it as an overwhelming surge of power came over him. Ren now wore instead of a regular school uniform, he was shirtless, with leather straps wrapped around his chest, a leather gauntlet wrapped around his right arm, his feet had leather wraps all the way up to his knees and finally he had a red wrap covering his privates, held up by a leather belt which was decorated by little pieces of metal for extra protection as well as looks.

Now behind Ren was a buff shirtless man in a bright red cape and loincloth with a spear and shield. “Let’s crush them Leonidas!” Ren shouted out, feeling large amounts of pride from this sense of overwhelming power he just received.

Seeing this display Kamoshida almost fell over in fright, he quickly scampered onto his feet and ran out of the cell locking Ren and the two golden knights inside. Ren looked over at these knights and just smirked, Leonidas stabbed the knights with his spear, sending them with enough force to break straight through the cell’s door. Kamoshida quickly ran away and just as Ren was about to follow, he collapsed in exhaustion, panting heavily as his body tried catching up to the events that just happened.

Once he had calmed his body down, he noticed his rather exposing new outfit. “What the-?” He was about to continue talking to himself but the far-off shouts of more knights converging on his location made Ren know he had to escape first, ask questions later. 

“Hey over here!” A high-pitched voice called out from above him, Ren looked up in confusion and he saw a set of bright blue eyes looking down at him he couldn’t see who the eyes belonged to they were wearing black and in the darkness of the rafters, the small lamps not being able to fully light the area. “Get up here before the shadows catch you!” The unknown voice added looking over at a stack of barrels. 

This person, while strange seemed to be wanting to help so Ren decided to trust them and he used the barrels to pull himself up into the rafters of the dungeon. Being up here Ren noticed that this person was not a person at all and was in fact a strange black and white cat creature with a yellow bandana around their neck. “Ahh...am I dreaming? You are a weird cat.” Ren asked looking rather confused by this. As if being in a castle dungeon that used to be his school was normal. 

“I’m not a cat! I’ll let you get away with that once, but focus we need to escape! I’ll explain everything once we get out of here.” The not cat responded getting visibly frustrated by Ren with their ears going flat against their head like an angry cat. 

With that rather loud reaction to being called a cat when they most obviously were a strange cat thing Ren just rolled his eyes, ignoring that for now, first getting out of the way of these armed knights would be lovely. 

While Ren and the cat were talking the knights had arrived at Ren’s cell and had begun to search for him, thankfully they seemed to be too stupid to actually look up when searching for him. He then begun to follow the cat who was walking on his hind legs along the banisters in the rafters, Ren who was far bigger than this cat had to shuffle along in a similar fasion to a dog wiping its behind on the carpet. 

The duo found a small crawlspace that rats used to scurry throughout the dungeon levels and the cat begun to climb through. Ren sighed and begun to squeeze himself through the highly cramped tunnels, there was only a small space for Ren to be able to move his arms to drag himself through these tight spaces. “Couldn’t I have gone in first? I really dislike staring at your butt.” 

“Will you be quiet?” The cat responded practically hissing. 

“Yeah yeah...” Ren responded clearly not caring about this very much, that was until through a gap in this crawlspace he saw Kamoshida and Ann, though like Kamoshida Ann was dressed in a strange outfit, she was just in a tiny little purple bikini, the small patches of cloth only just covering the naughty bits while being held up by what could be described as string. “W-wait cat!” 

The cat looked over at Ren with a glare. “What?” He then added. “Stop calling me cat, my name is Morgana!” 

“Right Morgana, this girl, we got to get her out of there.” Ren pointed at Ann and Morgana looked over at the bikini clad Ann and while there were hearts in his eyes, he shook his head. “She isn’t a human; she is just a part of his cognition.” 

This just confused Ren. “But it is Ann...” He looked back at Ann and frowned. It wasn’t like they could just jump down there and save her, Kamoshida and Ann were surrounded by knights. So, both of them had to press on further down this tight tunnel. 

Finally, Morgana had hopped out of the crawlspace and Ren soon followed, falling onto his face as he couldn’t get the room to gracefully land on his feet. “Owww....” Ren groaned out in discomfort, as he slowly got himself up to his feet, stretching out his strained body after that long crawl. Now that they were free this cat better explain himself. “Alright kitty, Morgana, what is going on here, why is my school a fucking big castle?” 

Morgana glared a bit at Ren at the mention of him being a kitty, but he didn’t say anything and decided to explain without chewing Ren out for calling him a rather offensive name. “This place is the distorted desires of Kamoshida, I’m here to break inside a steal his heart.” 

“You know you can just break into his house with like a knife, some drugs and do that.” Ren added in a rather blunt fashion. 

With a heavy sigh and a roll of his eyes Morgana continued. “Not his literal heart you idiot! Now...you have the power of Persona like I do, the both of us together I might be able to get to the top of this castle.” He looked up towards the castle and pointed upwards. “The heart is up there in the form of a treasure; we need to steal it!” 

“I’m on probation...I’m not stealing anything, I ain’t going to juvie.” Ren actually sounded a little worried about getting in serious trouble. 

“You won’t get caught, this crime will leave no trace on him, I-it could kill him, but I’m almost one hundred percent sure that it will just change his cognition, this castle should crumble and in the real world he will become a better person, far less pervy that’s for sure. I’ve seen some terrible things in this castle.” Morgana shuddered in disgust. 

“I don’t really know what you are saying...but I also don’t care if this kills him, if he dies, I won’t get expelled. But I’ll do it...I really can’t go to juvie. I would never see my siblings again.” 

Morgana placed a paw to his chin tapping it lightly as he thought of some plans, with Ren here their power just doubled...but more people couldn’t hurt. “Alright. I’ll remain around here and we will meet up tomorrow. You better show up or I’ll be annoyed!” 

“Mhm...” Ren agreed not really paying attention to what Morgana was saying now, he was starting to get concerned that he was going to miss school and get in even bigger trouble. He took out his phone and opened up that strange app again, as Morgana continues to speak on and on about, something. He saw there was a Return Trip button and he pressed it, he found himself at the front of the school. 

Checking his phone for the time, school was already over, he had missed all of his school day. “Great...” He knew he would be in trouble because of this absence, he quickly turned around and went to Closi’s place.


	5. Chapter 5

A short walk later and he was back to Closi’s house and she was outside waiting for him, looking rather disappointed. “Ren darling...we need to talk about today, I got a call from the principal that you were not at school today. What happened?” 

Well there goes Ren’s idea of sneaking inside to his bedroom before Closi could talk with him. “I ah...” He knew he couldn’t say anything about him getting lost in a castle and he couldn’t go to school because of that. “I got...bullied so I avoided school.” He lies hoping she would buy it. 

Closi looked at Ren for a moment her face was full of concern for him, she gently places a hand on his back and guides him inside and onto the living room couch. “Darling I know going to a new school can be rough and some people might bully you for being on probation. But you cannot skip school, I need you to promise me that tomorrow you will go to school. I’ll talk with your homeroom teacher and see if she can help ease the bullying problem.” As she speaks, she sits down next to Ren, now a cup of tea in her hand which she offered to the teenager. 

While Ren wasn’t much of a tea or coffee person. It was a nice gesture so he begun to drink it as he thought of something to say. “Thanks...” His voice trails off and he soon gets up onto his feet and he begins to walk to his room. “I’ve got some homework to do, I’ll be down for dinner...maybe.” He then enters his bedroom and he finishes off the tea and begins to check out his phone, checking this weird mystery app once again. It must have been involved in how he arrived at that strange castle, as there was an option to return to the castle similarly to how a regular navigation app stores your destinations in it, at least he didn’t have to figure out what he did to make the castle show up in the first place. 

He put his phone away and actually started to do some catch up homework so he could be ready for the class tomorrow. 

The next day Ren had a normal day of school he decided to go find Ann and ask her about the castle as he didn’t fully believe Morgana’s statement about that not being Ann as it looked like her, why wouldn’t it be her. 

He found her by her shoe locker after school and he approached her casually. While some other students jumped to the conclusion that Ren was about to ask Ann out, he didn’t really care about their opinions. “Hey Ann. This might sound a bit crazy...but were you at a castle yesterday?” 

Ann who was putting on her shoes paused after hearing the question, her expression changed to one of pure confusion at what Ren was on about. “I’m sorry what? Is that some bad pick-up line?” She asked as she resumed putting on her shoes and after stood up to look him in the eye. 

“No! Not that at all. Just ahh...can you come with me for a sec?” He sounded awkward as he spoke, he knew this was strange, he barely knew her and yet he had to know about this. 

Checking her phone for the time Ann sighed gently and nodded her head. “Fine, five minutes.” 

Ren led her to an alley close by the school, Ann was slightly uncomfortable by this, but she didn’t mention anything as she followed Ren. Once they were out of the public eye Ann was about to say something but Ren used the strange phone app a sudden headache cuts off her train of thought. Just as she was about to start her sentence Ren points towards the school and Ann’s mouth opens up in awe. 

“What is going on here Ren?!” She yells out in shock looking at him. 

She didn’t know this place, well that answered his question, that Ann he saw yesterday wasn’t this Ann, unless she is an amazing actor. “This is the castle I was talking about; I saw you here!” 

Hearing the commotion Morgana approached both of them and Ann screamed seeing him. “Wh-what is that? A monster cat?” She looked over at Ren for an explanation but he just shrugged, he had no idea about this place either. After the shock of seeing Morgana had worn off, it finally hit her. “Your clothes! You look...weird. Like some kind of gladiator.” 

“Ahem!” Morgana clears his throat. “First of all, I’m not a cat, I am a human! Second, what were you thinking?! Why would you take someone...someone...” He shakes his head he was getting distracted by how she looked and had to get that out of his head to give out this important information. “The shadows could kill her!” 

“Then I will just have to kill them if they try.” Ren said casually, not seeing the danger even though just yesterday he was in a dungeon and attacked by these knights. 

Ann hearing that she could die looks rather distraught. “Wh... I could die?! Ren why the hell would you take me here?” 

“I...I saw you here, least I thought it was you, guess the cat, I mean Morgana was right about it not being you. I just had to know, so...like I could save you.” Ren sounds rather awkward and uncomfortable, now he felt like a total idiot, he bet that Ann now thought he had a crush on her and was doing something weird to try and get a date with her. 

Morgana frowned a bit. “You should have trusted me; I did save your life after all! Now what is your name?” He asked as he turns his attention to Ann. 

Ann looks down at Morgana, getting down into a squatting position so she could look him in the eyes without revealing anything from under her skirt. “I’m Ann, you must be Morgana.” She reaches out to pat his head just like she would for any cat. 

Just as Morgana was about to complain that humans don’t get head pats, a very happy purr came out of him and his whole body relaxed. “Lady Ann~” He purred out obviously happy with how it felt. 

Ren rolled his eyes at that sight. “Stupid cat.” He mumbled as his eyes scanned over the castle then an idea came to him. “What if Ann helps us?” 

Snapping out of his pat induced trance Morgana shakes his head. “That is a stupid-!” He then thinks about it before he could respond with his new answer Ann cut in. 

“Help you? Why, what would I help you both with? I’m guessing it has something to do with this castle.” 

Morgana finally getting his chance to speak begun to answer her questions. “That’s right, this castle here is how Kamoshida sees the world around him and myself and Ren here are going to stop these desires and hopefully make him a better man. Do you know anything about him? I see you are wearing the uniform for the school. He is a-” 

“Oh I know him, total scumbag. But what does me knowing things about him help you?” 

Expecting this question Morgana looked rather proud. “Well as this place is his cognition, someone who knows how it ticks, will really help us when navigating around the area. Avoiding traps, the usual Phantom Thief set of skills.” 

“Phantom Thief...?” Ren sounds rather puzzled by that name. “Is that seriously what you call yourself? That’s children’s TV levels of corny.” 

With a growl Morgana continued to talk. “It is what I am and what I want you to be Ren, Ann as well, but she will have to stay behind us for safety, only if she agrees to help.” He looks up at Ann hoping she will help them. 

Ann looks concerned about this situation, but the idea of changing Kamoshida was very tempting. “If it will really change him...” She let out a sigh as she thought about all the students Kamoshida had abused. She then clenches her fist looking serious. “I will do it. You better make him confess for his crimes; he deserves jail time.” 

With a big smile Morgana raises his fist into the air as he is celebrating. “Well we are official now! The Phantom Thieves shall be stealing Kamoshida’s heart as their first official heist!” 

Ren looked down at Morgana raising an eyebrow in confusion. “Wait...don’t tell me you have never done this before!” 

Morgana looked annoyed as he turned his attention to Ren. “I was in the middle of scouting the place before I saved you from the dungeons! 

“Great...we are hosed...” Ren shook his head with a heavy sigh. 

Morgana ignored Ren and pulled out a rather hastily drawn map and pointed at a place that was labelled as Master Bedroom. Ann and Ren were checking out the map as Morgana begun to speak. “So, the goal is to get to the top parts of the castle, that is where the treasure is. But for today let’s just aim for this area, I haven’t gone any further than here on my own, much too dangerous. Since we have Ren and myself it shouldn’t be a problem!” 

Ann looked slightly skeptical but she nodded her head when she heard of this plan. 

While Ren frowned but he mentally agreed not seeming to notice that he needed some form of outward agreement so the others knew what he was thinking. 

“Let’s get going!” Morgana said cheerfully, obviously looking excited to finally attempt to steal a treasure. 

They all stand up and just as Ren starts walking towards the front door Morgana jumps up and smacks him on the back of the head. “Are you an idiot?! You can’t go in through the front door! You have to think of how a thief would work, they go in through the back or a secret passageway.” 

Ren while rubbing the back of his head from being hit. “Alright fine, lead the way.” 

Morgana then pointed up to an open hole in the wall, the one that Ren and Morgana had escaped the castle from before. “We go in from here, there is another path that I think leads up to the upper floors of the castle.” 

Ren then shrugs his shoulders and starts climbing up into the opening, but Morgana quickly gets in before him. “I’m leading the way!” Morgana said firmly turning his head to face Ren and Ann. 

“I’ll- I’ll go in last; I don’t want either of you sneaking a peak!” Ann adds to the conversation causing Ren to rolls his eyes and Morgana look rather offended. 

“Not interested in that.” Ren says casually as he begins to get ready to enter the hole, though his wording quickly caused him to believe he needed to clarify. “I-I mean I like women just, not interested in up skirting!” 

Morgana nods his head in agreement. “I would never do such a dishonourable thing Lady Ann.” 

Ren laughs. “Because you are short enough to look up whenever you like.” 

Morgana looks rather offended by that. “I would n-never! Lady Ann you must believe me!” 

With a heavy sigh Ann just points at the hole in the wall. “Just get moving, we will talk about this later.” 

Morgana quickly climbs into the crawlspace followed by Ren and then Ann, who takes her time climbing inside. 

“Hey...” Ann says a while into their crawling. “There are no spiders in here are there?” 

Ren shrugs. “Don’t worry I’ll squish them all.” 

“Ahaha, thanks?” Ann replied her voice showed that she was obviously not too pleased with that answer as that implied there were spiders here. 

“No problem.” Ren responded not seeming to pick up on Ann’s displeased feelings to his answer. 

After a lot of crawling, this time they seemed to be climbing up a lot more Morgana just stopped causing a small traffic jam as Ren bumped into him and Ann bumped into Ren. “Hey say something when you are stopping next time!” Ren yelled at Morgana. 

Morgana being able to stand up in these tight ventilation shafts turned around to look at Ren. “Stop yelling! Do you want to go back into the dungeons?” Not waiting for an answer, he continues to speak. “Help me lift this, we need to walk the rest of the way, it is dangerous, guards are patrolling the area, probably more now since you caused so much chaos yesterday. However, we should be able to avoid most of them with my thief skills.” 

Ann tried peeking around Ren to see what was going on, which was hard given the cramped space. “Can you two hurry up? My arms are starting to hurt.” 

With Ren’s help Morgana lifts a vent out of the way and the not cat jumps out with grace checking out the room before waving the two humans in. Ren came out with all the grace of an almost drowned rat and then he helped Ann get out without worrying about falling on her face. 

“Thank you” She says softly to Ren before she looked over at Morgana. “Are we close to his bedroom? That sounds really weird to say.” 

Morgana pulls out the map once again to check it over before he nodded his head. “Oh yeah, we are on the right track, it should be just down the hallway and on our right. Don’t worry I’ve done this all before.” 

Ren then slowly opens up the door, knowing he should be slow, just like what spy movies told him. He looked around before closing the door again. “I don’t see any knights outside, lead the way Morgana.” 

“Before we go, I noticed something, we cannot be using our real names here, who knows what shouting your name would do inside someone’s palace. For here on I suggest we appoint code names to each other.” 

“Hmm...” Ren thinks to himself, if he just had to have a code name, what would he like to be called on this adventure. “Call me Spartan.” He says without thinking, just blurting out the first thing he could think of given his odd outfit in this world. “But what about you?” He said looking over at Ann for any ideas. 

“How about Kitty?” Ann sounds like she is struggling with an idea. 

“No! I’m not being called that! There has to be something else!” Morgana cried out looking slightly worried no one could come up with a good code name for him. 

Ren sits down on a rather fancy looking table, resting his feet up on the back of a chair. “I don’t know nothing is coming to mind. Maybe Mona?” 

Morgana opened his mouth to complain, expecting Ren to have a bad idea right from the start but he thought on it for a brief moment before he nodded his head. “Fine, I will go with that.” 

Pointing at Ann, Ren rather seriously says. “Now, what about her? She doesn’t have a fancy costume to get a name from.” 

“Let’s just go with Informant for now.” Morgana responds casually as he makes his way to the door, having to jump up to even reach the doorknob to open it. 

“Well...okay, that is fine by me.” Ann responds as she looks around the room, utterly amazed at the detail this castle holds. 

Everyone one by one entered the red carpeted hallway, the floors were tiled in a black and white alternating pattern and the walls were lined with wallpaper what depicted the shapes and patterns of red roses and countless paintings of Kamoshida and what looked to be fantastical conquests he had completed, including what looked like slaying a dragon. 

Morgana looked around to make sure there was no signs of any knights before giving a thumbs up. “Okay follow me.” He then quickly begun to walk down the hallway, peeking around the corner of the hallway seeing a guard on the far side he turned back to the two teenagers. “Just in here, this should be the Master Bedroom.” 

As Morgana struggled to open the door last time Ren grabbed the door handle and opened the door, though the second he saw what was inside he wish he hadn’t. 

Inside the Master Bedroom was countless young teenagers all wearing skimpy clothing ranging from bikini’s similar to what the not Ann was wearing yesterday to sexualised bunny costumes. All of them either posed ready for some kind of sexual activity, laying on the bed trying to look enticing or hung up on the walls with a strange X shaped rack that held their arms and legs in place. 

“Holy...” Ren couldn’t even swear, this was both really hot for his dumb teenage brain and deplorable knowing somewhat why these teens were acting like this. Kamoshida saw them like this on a daily basis. 

Morgana too was gobsmacked by seeing this, he looked up at the other two and simply said. “Lady A-I mean Informant are you okay?” 

Instead of responding with a simple yes or no answer Ann ran into the room shouting “Shiho!?” She ran up to a girl who wore a pure white bunny outfit. “Shiho what are you doing here are you okay?!” Ann grabbed Shiho by the shoulders looking worried for this person. 

“Princess Ann, why are you wearing that? King Kamoshida won’t like it if you are wearing something so brutish.” The bunny girl responded flatly. “You should get that boy and...cat down to the dungeons too.” 

“What? Dungeons? No no, Shiho these are my friends they-” 

Morgana quickly butts in. “No Ann it isn’t Shiho, that is just how Kamoshida sees her! If you want to save her you need to steal his treasure.” 

Ann looked over at Morgana she opened her mouth to respond but nothing came out, not that she would have had much time to speak as King Kamoshida was now standing in the open door with two silver knights and one gold knight behind him. A scowl appeared on his face when he noticed that it wasn’t just his girls that were in here. “You! You were that brat in from the dungeons and you...you are not my Ann! Guards take them all to the dungeons to be executed, the cat too.” 

Ren who had been doing his best to avoid looking at the girls to be both polite and avoid any unwanted excitement while doing thief stuff looked over at Kamoshida and placed a hand on his mask. “Ha want me to finally kick your ass this time? Sounds good to me!” He pulls the mask off his face and Leonidas appeared behind him ready to fight. 

Morgana jumped in the air and did a flip a large bloony but buff man appeared behind him, wearing all black clothes trimmed with white, with a large belt with the letter Z right in the middle. For a weapon he was holding a rapier, a long thin sword built for thrusting. “Zorro!” He shouted out as the man in black pointed his sword to the knights and a green tornado came up from the ground knocking the knights away from the doorway. Ren then got Leonidas to attack them while they were down, he managed to get two, but where was the golden one? 

His answer came rather quickly as Ann screamed as the knight now had her in its arm with a blade to her throat. He looked to his king who had stood up and waved his hand to the knight. “Kill the men, leave the girl for my chambers, it will be fun breaking her in, like that Shiho girl.” 

“Let go of me!” Ann yelled struggling slightly as to not get the blade any closer to her neck than she needed. She then noticed what Kamoshida had said about her friend. “You bastard what did you do to Shiho!?” 

Kamoshida was about to leave to let his knights deal with these thieves but hearing Ann yell his smug grin reappeared on his face, the same grin he had when he walked away from Ren after expelling him. “Oh? Right~ I have to thank you for convincing her to stay on the team Ann. It gave me the perfect opportunity to break her in to my liking. She now loves her king, don’t you?” 

Shiho the girl in the bunny suit approached Kamoshida and wrapped her arm around him, nuzzling into his fluffy robe all while one of her hands rubs his chest sensually, sure it was covered by his robe but it was obvious she was into touching his muscular body. “King Kamoshida is rough to us all, but he deserves to do it to us as if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have made it to the championship. He should be treated right, why don’t you just submit? It is so much fun Ann.” 

“Sh...Shiho...why...why do you...no...” She shook her head in shock hanging her head down, obviously trying to avoid the blade still kept to her neck, but her shame was beating her survival instinct to avoid this sword. 

“It has taken quite a while until I could finally reach you...” An echoey voice surrounded Ann a similar one to the one Ren heard except it was obviously female. Hearing this voice Ann’s body jerked in pain, the knight actually dropped her not excepting her to struggle so strongly in the hold she was in. Just as the knight was about to pick her up a blue aura surrounded Ann and the knight backed off this power obviously scaring it. “Are you planning on avenging your friend? If you don’t...who will? You knew he was unforgivable, why do you hesitate now?” 

Ann begun to punch at the ground, then begun to claw at her face as a mask begun appeared on her face. “You...are right...Carmen. For Shiho, for myself and EVERYONE else! We shall stop him!” 

“Now that our contract is formed, let us punish the criminals that want to harm others!” The voice shouted out, obviously overjoyed of Ann’s reaction. 

Ann then removed the mask from her face and a woman appeared behind her with long black ponytails, purple skin and a black cat like mask on her face. Her clothing was a black corset like upper half, showing off her cleavage and breasts, patterned with red hearts along with a red inside trimming with matching high heel boots that go past the knee. Along with a flowing red dress with black stripes, both halves held together by a flowery rose belt with thorny vines that are attached to two suited male figures with love heart faces. 

Once she had regained her composure she stood up and turned around to glare at the golden knight who was holding her as it raised the blade at her the knight suddenly burst into fire and vanished into a black substance. 

Ren and Morgana were both standing utterly gobsmacked at her power and even the king Kamoshida was shocked by it, he shoved Shiho away likely so she could be killed before him and then bolted out the door and out the hallway, then two silver knights appeared in front of the opening making sure they couldn’t follow Kamoshida, just as quickly another golden one appeared behind them. Followed by some orders of an obviously scared Kamoshida. “K-kill them! I don’t care if you have to kill some of my girls, I can get more! Just kill these...these thieves!” 

All three of them grouped together with their Personas behind them ready to battle the knights. “You okay Ann?” Ren asks looking over at her. 

“I feel more alive now than I have my entire life! Let’s go topple this castle!” She then sent flames to attack the knights, Morgana used his wind to stir up the flames and create a flame tornado which instantly destroyed the silver knights and Ren followed with a powerful stab with Leonidas’ spear right through the chest of the golden knight, it disintegrated into blackness just like the others. 

“Pathetic...” Ren grumbled to himself. Before he turned his attention to Ann and Morgana, thankfully he did this just in time as Ann’s knees had given out from exhaustion and Ren was there to keep her from falling and hurting herself. 

“Th-thanks.” She said softly, panting slightly. It wasn’t long after being caught by Ren that she noticed something was up with her outfit, it wasn’t her Shujin uniform anymore. It was now a bright red form fitting body suit with many zippers down the chest area, with one of them being zipped open to see her cleavage. Once she noticed this, she pushed Ren away. “Let go of me!” 

Ren dropped her looking embarrassed as he avoided staring at her new outfit, while appealing he didn’t want to be a creep. “Sorry...” 

Morgana was less subtle at looking as his blue eyes were filled with hearts. “Lady Ann~” He sighed in delight, causing Ann to kick Morgana away. 

“Don’t look at me you creep! Wh-what happened to my clothes?! Why am I wearing this...this thing?!” She covered up her chest with both arms to stop the two boys from getting a nice look at her. 

Morgana who was rubbing his face simply described it. “I don’t exactly know why you look like that, but it is similar to why Ren is dressed up as a gladiator. It is what you see a rebellious soul as. Looks like a cat burglar given the mask.” 

“M-my mask?” Ann sounds confused as she reaches up to touch her face, she was amazed to find there was indeed a mask there. It was the same shade of red as her body suit and shaped like a cat face, covering the top half of her head, there were even little cat ears sticking up on top of the mask. 

Ren now that Ann had covered herself for a brief moment had decided to actually look at her enough to offer his hand to her and allow her to stand up which she takes. “So, both of you get to be cats, why am I a totally different thing?” 

“I’m not a-! Whatever...” Morgana grumbles. “We can explain it more later, we should get out of here Cougar shouldn’t be here any longer, she is exhausted from awaking to her Persona. 

“Cougar...?” Ren shrugged his shoulders not understand who Morgana was referring to until it hits him and he looked over to Ann to see her reaction.

“Oh no way you are calling me that!” She yelled out in anger. 

“Why not? It is a strong cat, I thought you would like it.” Morgana frowned looking upset that she didn’t like his idea. 

“Just...we are not calling me that!” Ann continued to yell at Morgana. Ren who was snickering to himself at how funny this was, wasn’t laughing for long as Ann snapped at him too. “It isn’t funny okay! I need a better name than that! How about like...Panther, it is a strong cat and doesn’t have, well you know.” 

Ren nodded. “Seems fine by me. Not like these code names are that important. Just have to be memorable.” 

“Then that settles it! From this point onwards you shall be Panther! Now let’s get out of here for today, we can continue our palace exploration tomorrow.” Morgana then exits the room and checks for more knights. “It’s clear, let’s go back through the vent.” 

Ren begin to walk off but he stopped when he noticed Ann wasn’t following. “Coming Panther?” 

“Yeah. Just give me a second.” She walked over to Shiho, who had been injured from being pushed by Kamoshida when he tried to escape, she hugged the bunny outfitted teenager and simply said. “I will save you, just hang on a little longer...” Ann then got to her feet and followed Ren to the exit. 

And with that everyone returned to the real world, back into that alleyway that Ann and Ren started in. 

“Wow we are really back!” Ann said in amazement. “I can’t believe we can just go to a castle.” 

Ren opened his mouth to speak but a familiar voice interrupted him. “Well it is pretty neat, I bet there are countless palaces we could explore if we wanted to.” 

“What the-?!” Ren looked around for the source of the voice, it wasn’t long before he noticed Morgana was sitting on an air conditioner unit looking down at both of them, except he wasn’t a strange cat creature, this time he was just a cat, a black cat with white markings on the feet, muzzle, insides of the ears and tip of the tail. He had the same striking blue eyes and a yellow collar, which looked very similar to his yellow bandanna in the other world. “You’re a cat Morgana.” Ren said bluntly. 

Morgana leaped at Ren, landing on his face giving him a scratch across the cheek. “I am not! I just lost my human form is all!” He got pulled off by Ren and placed on the ground. “But if the battles are going to get harder, which they will, Kamoshida knows we are here and we need some better ways to protect ourselves, Personas are great but we will get tired too quickly if we use them all the time, we need weapons. But where can we get them?” 

Ann who had been stifling laughter at seeing Morgana attack Ren thought about it for a moment she snapped her fingers as an idea came to her. “Oh! I might know someone; Ren meet me after school outside your classroom. If anyone knows how to buy weapons it is this guy.” 

Ren nodded his head. “Sounds like a plan, now...about this fuzzy guy. What are you going to do?” 

Morgana with a smug pride in his voice simply stated. “I plan on living with Lady Ann of course!” 

“Not happening.” Ann shot him down in an instant. 

“I guess he can come with me...Closi hasn’t said anything about no pets. So, I guess he can stay for a little while.” 

“Then let’s go see your place! You coming Ann?” Morgana said jumping into Ren’s school bag which Ren sighed at. 

“Can’t today, I got a shoot I need to...AH! Look at the time! I’m late! This is the worst! I gotta run bye!” Before either of the boys could say anything, she ran off. 

Ren checked his phone for the time and Ann was right, if the darkening sky wasn’t a dead giveaway they had been in that castle for a long time. “Let’s go.” 

Both Ren and Morgana who remained in his backpack the whole time arrived at Closi’s house, she wasn’t outside tending to the garden, it must be too late for that, he opened the door and Closi who was in the kitchen called to him. 

“Ren darling, come here please.” She was boiling a kettle for some tea; this lady must like her tea. 

Ren approached and as he was about to speak Closi cut him off when she noticed the scratch. “Oh darling! Are you okay? Did a stray cat get you? We have a few of those in the area.” She then looked down to Ren’s bag seeing Morgana’s head sticking out she looked back up at Ren. “Darling, did you steal someone’s cat?” 

Ren shook his head. “No, no. He jumped in himself. Can I keep him? Least until I can find him a good home.” 

Closi reached out and patted the cat on the head and gave Ren and Morgana a big warm smile. “Of course, darling, I’ll give you some spending money so you can buy it some food and toys and anything else you want to buy.” Just as she was going to speak more the kettle went ping, so she turned her attention the pouring a cup of tea for herself and offering one to Ren which he rejected politely. “Before I forget Ren, if you are planning on staying out late at night, I will need you to call me before hand, it is very important as your probation officer that I know you haven’t been doing anything naughty. I will be getting you a diary too so you can write about your day, it is good for venting and so I can give nice clean reports of your progress.” 

Not really knowing how to react Ren simply nodded his head and took Morgana up to his room. Dropping the bag on his bed Morgana jumped out and stretched out. “You better not be buying me cat food!” 

“Will you keep quiet!? Closi can’t hear that I have a talking cat, she would freak out, could give her a heart attack as she is so old!” 

“I will not just not talk!” Morgana hissed out a response. 

Closi came upstairs with a bowl of soup, along with a small bowl of what looked like some boiled chicken and placed it on Ren’s desk. “He has a lot of spunk doesn't he? Feed the little guy this for tonight he can have cat food tomorrow when you buy it.” 

“Ah yeah...thanks...” He watched as Closi left the room before he walked over and put the bowl of chicken on his bed and Morgana instantly begun to eat it. Ren couldn’t help but smile, for a little bugger he could be pretty cute. He then sat at his desk and begun to drink the soup. This moment of silence was useful so he could think about today’s events. 

It looked like he had gained a pet and a friend, least he hoped Ann was a friend, he needed friends at this school if he was to survive for two years here, staying the weird social outcast that attacks people most likely wasn’t the best option for him. 

He shook his head staring down at his bowl of soup, watching the water ripple and distort his own reflection, why did he gain this power? Why did Ann also get this power? Who or what was Morgana and how did this crazy thing get on his phone in the first place? All questions he had no answers to and most likely never would. With a sigh he flopped down onto bed almost knocking Morgana’s food bowl off the bed with the shock of Ren’s weight hitting the bed, he then simply moved it down onto the floor before curling up to go sleep. “Night Morgana, please don’t bother me I am exhausted today.” 

Morgana nodded. “Yeah fine, I will check around the place while you rest.” 

“Just don’t bother Closi.” Was all Ren said before closing his eyes and attempting to get some sleep.


End file.
